When Ben realizes that Jinny has already taken Ess to discard her shoes and get new clothing, he’s disappointed because Jinny was supposed to take him along and give him his first Elder Lesson. Jinny claims that there’s nothing to learn even though, earlier that day, she regretted that Deen didn’t explain to her what to do if a kid doesn’t want to throw the shoes away. They eat grilled oysters for dinner.

Jinny explains to Ess that each night when three stars appear in the sky, it’s time to meet everyone else at the fire circle. If someone doesn’t show up on time, everyone else will worry about them, unless the person specified earlier that they wouldn’t be there for some reason. Joon points out that Jinny forgot to get a book to read aloud to the group—that’s now one of her jobs each night as Elder. Jinny rushes to the book cabin and chooses a random book. Everybody has read them all already (except Ess); only a limited number of books are left on the island, each with the name “Abigail Ellis” hand-written on the inside as well as Abigail’s notes in the margins commenting on each story.